Re: Should developers have DBA role?

larry wrote:
> Hi. Our company has about 20 application developers/architects and one
> certified dba. Our developers both design the databases and build the
> applications. We're confused about what permissions a developer is
> supposed to have. On the one hand, we obviously don't want developers
> to have privileges like shutting down the db. On the other hand, some
> of the Oracle tools, like Change Management Pack, are things that our
> developers need to run. Our developers need to be able to compare and
> synchronize schemas on a routine basis. Yet according to the oracle
> documentation, Change Management Pack requires dba privilege. At the
> same time, the oracle docs discuss how the tool can be used by
> developers. So my question is: Does a developer typically have dba
> access? If not, then what permissions is a developer supposed to have?
> Is there any guidance, from oracle or elsewhere, on this issue? Any
> help appreciated.
>
> Larry

Larry,

You are talking about a development-database, right? In that case the developers should have whatever privileges they need to do their job. BUT that database is their responsibility meaning, if something goes very wrong and the database is lost, they should be able to restore the database from an export, cold backup or whatever. We are not discussing a 24x7 database so a daily cold backup should be enough.

If this is a share developement-database then try to limit the number of developers with DBA privs, ie. if only a few of the developers need to run CMP then only that group should have DBA privs.

You _will_ need a test-database however, on this database no developer should have DBA privs, same for integration and production naturally.

-- 
Hope this helps.

Michael Willer
Oracle & J2EE architect
Cyber Com Consulting a/s